Steve Vertigum wrote:
69
municipalities, 141 local councils, and 53
regional councils, for a
total of 263 articles. The local councils and
regional councils contain
smaller towns within them, but I don't have data on
them, so at present
any information about them will have to be added
manually.
I see-- and what treatment are you giving to towns
which exist in violation of the various UN and
US-Israel agreements over the years?
Its only been the past couple months that Israel has
bent to international pressure to dismantle a
settlement -- how are you treating these? Are these
registered as non-existent? Are you adding the former
Arabic names of towns, recently and not-so recently
incorporated into Israel?
First of all, he's already mentioned that data on the territories (West
Bank, Gaza Strip) is not included, which is where most of these issues
would arise. The remaining disputed areas are the Golan Heights and
East Jerusalem; in both cases the issues could be solved simply by
linking to those two articles, which explain the disputed situation.
As for former names, I'd say add them if you have them; if not, they can
be added later. Most of the cities and towns in Turkey have former
Greek names (as well as many former Greek residents, who have since been
made into refugees), and I don't see anyone objecting that we're
including data biased towards the occupying Turkish government in
Wikipedia. (In fact, I think there are lots of Greece/Turkey and
Palestine/Israel parallels, but that's another matter).
-Mark